The Best WordPress Backup Plugins

Things do not always go as planned. Setting up a backup for WordPress is your first line of defense in case anything ever happens to your website. We have talked about how important it is to backup your WordPress site. In this article, I am going to show you the best WordPress backup plugins.

In this article, we have one free plugin and two premium plugins. Whenever you are searching for the right plugin solution, it is always tempting to go with the cheapest option. This is not always the right thing to do when it comes to backups. Losing data is a costly and stressful thing to go through. You obviously have to work within your budget, however you should evaluate all available options and choose the one that suits you best.

Note that all of the plugins detailed below backup your complete website including theme files, plugins, images and your database.

BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy is one of the most popular backup plugins for WordPress. It helps you backup your whole WordPress installation to Dropbox, Rackspace, Amazon S3 or an FTP server. You can even backup your website via email or directly to your desktop.

Restorations are simple using a single import file (importbuddy.php) that will restore your website from a backup file; wherever the backup is located. The amazing thing about the import file is that you do not even need WordPress to be installed in order to use it. Individual files can also be restored and BackupBuddy can be used when you move to a new hosting company.

The price of BackupBuddy depends on the number of websites you want to backup. The personal license retails at $80 and allows 2 websites to be backed up whilst the business license costs $100 and allows up to 10 websites to be backed up. Developers can purchase an unlimited license for $150.

BackWPup

BackWPup is a free WordPress plugin that will save your complete WordPress installation. It allows you to backup your website to external services such as Amazon S3, DropBox, SugarSync, Microsoft Azure and RackSpaceCloud. Backups can also be stored in a directory on your own host or on another location via FTP.

The plugin can also be used to repair and optimize your database. Backups can be saved in zip, tar, tar.gz and tar.bz2 format. You can then restore your website using the saved backup file. A premium version of the plugin is available for $75 that offers support, documentation and additional features.

VaultPress

Developed by Automattic (The company behind WordPress.com), VaultPress is a premium backup service that can backup your WordPress websites in real time. It securely backs up your website every day.

Without doubt, VaultPress is the easiest way to backup a WordPress website. There are no options to configure. You simply activate the plugin on your website and your website files will start being backed up on Automattic’s servers. Backups can be downloaded at any time, however the best thing about VaultPress is the way it handles restores. All you need to do is click one button to restore your website to a previous version. You do not even have to restore your whole website. If you prefer, you can just restore themes, plugins, uploads or your database.

There are three VaultPress plans to choose from. The basic VaultPress plan costs $15 per month or $165 per year. That offers realtime backups. This means that your website is backed up around once an hour. The amazing thing about the VaultPress service is that you can download backups and restore your website from the very first day you are using the service. This allows you to download backups from years ago. For example, you could go back to a day 18 months ago and download the backup of your website that occurred at 6.00pm.

A premium plan is available for $40 per month or $440 per year. In addition to all basic plan features, it offers daily security scans and priority support from experienced WordPress developers.

If you are on a tight budget or if you do not need realtime backups, you may want to consider the lite plan. This costs only $5 per month or $55 per year. This plan will back up your website once a day rather than every hour. Backups are kept for thirty days rather than indefinitely. For many WordPress users, the lite plan offers everything they need.

I hope this article helped you choose the best WordPress backup plugin for your site.